Tuesday, December 16, 2008

New Mod, portable 120 volt power supply

Trying to get the most out of the AMPhibian I wanted a way to utilize the power of my 48 volt DC battery pack in a 120 volt AC mode to run tools and provide some backup power for my house in case of an outage. You can buy 12 volt DC to 120 volt AC inverters but a 48 volt version isn't easy to find, or cheap. However I spoke to someone on the EVDL who gave me the idea to find an old computer back up power supply, or UPS, without batteries and use my pack. Since most larger UPS run off 48 volts this would be perfect for me. I picked up a used APC 2200 UPS without batteries for $160 shipped and hooked the battery inputs up to my 48 volt battery pack in the AMPhibian. I now have a portable 120 volt AC power supply with 1600 watt capacity. I was able to run my Makita electric chainsaw off it as a test tonight. Not sure for how long, but I should be able to drive into the woods, cut a tree into log lengths, and drag them home, all on electricity.

You might be able to just tap into 48 volts worth of batteries in your pack and then use a balancer setup to even out the draw. Maybe use one of thesehttp://solarconverters.com/eqlist.htmlto get 48 volts from 24 volts of batteries then parallel that with 48 volts from the rest of your pack. It might work. If you go to 96 volts I think you can just parallel the pack into two 48 volt sections.

I could but the charger in the UPS doesn't really put out enough current to properly charge the Odyssey batteries.During a power outage I did use it to power my computer and the blower in my wood stove for a few hours. I could have powered my TV as well but since I also lost cable there was no point.